Naruto Uzumaki
|race = Human |gender = Male |age = Part I: 12-13 Part II: 15-17 |hair = Blonde |eye = Blue |height = Part I: 145.3 cm-147.5 cm Part II: 166 cm Blank Period: 180 cm |weight = Part I: 40.1 kg-40.6 kg Part II: 50.9 kg |affiliation = Konohagakure |occupation = Hokage |status = Alive |manga = Naruto |javoice = Junko Takeuchi |envoice = Maile Flanagan}} is the main protagonist in the Naruto series created by Masashi Kishimoto. He is a teenage ninja from the fictional village of Konohagakure. The villagers ostracize Naruto because of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox—a malevolent creature that attacked Konohagakure—sealed in his body. To be recognized, he aspires to become the village's leader, the Hokage. Naruto appears in the series' films and in other media related to the franchise, including video games and original video animations. Appearance In Part I, Naruto wore an orange and blue jacket with a white collar, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, and a red Uzumaki crest on the back. He also wore orange pants with a shuriken holster on his right knee, blue sandals, and a blue forehead protector, given to him by Iruka after graduating from the Academy. In Part II, Naruto wears a more form fitting outfit after wearing out his original one while training with Jiraiya with a T-shirt or mesh armour underneath. While retaining the swirls and orange pants, the blue pieces of his outfit changes to black: his forehead protector (which is now longer), sandals, and orange jacket, the black colour showing more prominence than the blue did originally. During his battle with Pain, Naruto briefly wore a short-sleeved red coat with a black flame pattern around the hem and carried a large scroll on his back. After becoming Hokage, Naruto dons a garment similar to his father's: a white cape that has a red flame pattern around the hem, is held together by a red rope, and has the kanji for written vertically down the back. Underneath this, he wears an orange sweatshirt with black stripes, black pants and sandals. He occasionally wears the traditional Hokage headpiece, but has stopped wearing a forehead protector. Personality Naruto has a cheerful and boisterous personality. When it comes to principles or situations, he is relatively naive, simple, and slow to understand them and often needs simple explanations grasp the information given to him. Naruto has a love for ramen and acts as his main dish. Because he was ostracized by his village, Naruto dreamed of becoming Hokage to a gain acknowledgement. Along his path as a ninja, Naruto developed his own rule as a ninja that he follows by never giving up or go back on his word. With this philosophy, Naruto believes that he can accomplish anything through hard work and perseverance no matter how difficult the obstacle is. Naruto has a special gift that allows him to befriend other people and change their view of the world by the use of kindness. With the bonds he formed, Naruto vowed to protect them even if he has to go great lengths to do so. Naruto has a habit of ending his sentences with when excited or frustrated, a trait he inherited from his mother. Story Naruto first appears in the manga as a mischievous Academy ninja student. Naruto pulls a prank where he paints graffiti on the Hokage Stone faces but gets caught and is sent back to the Academy. After failing to graduate, Naruto becomes disappointed and is met with one of his teachers, Mizuki who advises him to steal the Scroll of Seals to learn a jutsu from it in order to graduate. After Naruto steals the scroll he is found by Iruka and are both attacked by Mizuki who reveals that he tricked Naruto into stealing the scroll and how he has the Nine-Tails sealed within him. As Mizuki prepares to kill Naruto, Iruka steps in to protect him. After hearing how Iruka truly sees Naruto as a ninja of the village, Naruto confronts Mizuki and uses the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu that he read from the Scroll of Seals to defeat him. After witnessing Naruto's jutsu, Iruka congratulates him by giving him his headband and says that he has graduated. After graduating, Naruto is assigned to Team 7, a team that was compromised of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and team leader Kakashi Hatake. Before the team could go on any mission, Kakashi tested their team work by having them try to take a bell away from him. The team failed with the time they had but ended up passing after Sasuke and Sakura gave their food to Naruto after he was tied up to a log. They were given their first mission by escorting a bridge builder named Tazuna to the Land of Waves. However, they are stopped by one of the former Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi, and partner Haku. Seeing as how strong these foes are, Naruto was afraid to fight them but mustarded up the courage to after he vowed to not back down. Team 7 managed to defeat the duo and allowed Tazuna to build the bridge for his people of the Land of Waves. From the experience he had with Zabuza and Haku, Naruto decided to go by his own rule on how to live as a ninja. After returning to the Leaf Village, Kakashi has Team 7 volunteer to participate in the Chūnin Exams which Naruto was excited about. The managed to pass the first but are met with trouble during the second phase where they met Orochimaru. However, the team passes the third phase and continues on to the preliminaries, where Naruto faces off against Kiba Inuzuka and defeats him. After watching his former classmate Hinata Hyūga get brutally defeated by Neji Hyūga, Naruto vowed to win against him in the finals to avenge Hinata. With the time he has before the finals, Naruto seeks to become stronger by training. He encounters Jirayia, a legendary ninja who helps him in his training. The finals has come and Naruto is matched against Neji. Though it was difficult, Naruto manages to defeat Neji and move on to the next round. Before the Chūnin Exams could continue, the Village Hidden by Sand and the Village Hidden by Sound start to invade the Leaf Village. Moving away from the battlefield, Naruto is faced off against one of the Chūnin Exams participants Gaara who loses control after his earlier fight with Sasuke. Seeing as how Gaara will harm his fellow friends, Naruto promises to protect them by defeating him. Naruto defeats Gaara and tells him of the time where his life was similar to his but was changed due to having bonds with his comrades. After the battle, Naruto hears that the Third Hokage has been killed by Orochimaru during the invasion. Naruto pays his respects and later moves on to continue his training. Naruto is reunited with Jiraiya who convinces him to travel with him to find Tsunade to become the next Hokage by introducing him a new jutsu called the Rasengan. Before Naruto began his training with Jiraiya, he is met by Akatsuki members Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother, and Kisame Hoshikage, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, who were here to capture him in order to get the Nine-Tails within him. Sasuke appears to kill Itachi for slaughtering their clan in the past but is overpowered and falls unconscious. Naruto tries to do something but is helpless and saved by Jiraiya. The two escape seeing as how they will not do well against him. Jiraiya tells Naruto the purpose of the Akatsuki organization and that it was time for him to become stronger. Throughout the travel, Naruto goes through the Rasengan training and passes the first two steps but is having trouble with the final step. The two meets up with Tsunade and Jiraiya offers her the position of the Fifth Hokage but refuses seeing as how the past Hokage's wasted their life to protect the village. Naruto becomes enraged after hearing this response and challenges Tsunade to a battle. Naruto tries to win by creating an incomplete Rasengan but fails as Tsunade bested him. Abilities At first, Naruto started off as a mediocre ninja but soon improved after hard work and determination. Naruto's signature moves are the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Rasengan. With the Shadow Clone Jutsu, Naruto can create copies of himself and overwhelm his enemies. With the Rasengan, Naruto is capable of grinding into his opponent with a spherical ball of chakra. With both techniques combined, Naruto has a sure enough victory in his fights. Naruto in Sage Mode.png|Naruto in Sage Mode. Nine-Tails Chakra Mode Naruto.png|Naruto in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. Naruto Tailed Beast Mode.png|Naruto in Tailed Beast Mode. Six Paths Sage Mode.png|Naruto in Six Paths Sage Mode. Naruto has access to a mode called . In this mode his powers are enhanced and is used as a last resort to take down powerful opponents. A weaknesses is that there is a time limit and after time runs out Naruto ends up exhausted. Having full control of his tailed beast, Naruto has access to a transformation called the where his speed, strength, and defences are also increase. He can push this form even further and enter a powerful transformation called where he can create a full life size replica of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. The last transformation Naruto is able to enter is called which exceeds all his other empowered forms. Creation and Conception When creating Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto incorporated into the character a number of traits he felt made an ideal hero: a straightforward way of thinking, a mischievous side, and many of the attributes possessed by Son Gokū from the Dragon Ball franchise. He also made sure to keep Naruto "simple and stupid," since he does not like smart characters. Naruto himself is not modeled after anyone in particular, being conceived as childlike, with something of a dark side as a result of his harsh past. Despite this, he is always positive, making him unique in Kishimoto's eyes. Naruto's wardrobe is based on clothing Kishimoto wore when he was younger; according to Kishimoto, using a pre-existing design would not have made Naruto unique, whereas something original would have made him stand out too much. The orange colouring of his costume is used to make Naruto "pop," with blues often being used to complement the orange. Because Naruto is associated with spirals, swirl patterns are incorporated into his costume. Initial illustrations of Naruto had him wearing boots, but Kishimoto substituted these for sandals, because he likes drawing toes. The goggles that Naruto used to wear were also replaced with a forehead protector, because the goggles themselves were too time-consuming to draw. Kishimoto said that he felt glad that his character had blond hair and blue eyes. The editor of Shōnen Jump in the United States added that Kishimoto implied that the traits may have led the character to appeal to a Western audience. Kishimoto said that he most identifies with Naruto out of all of the Naruto characters (in an interview with the U.S. Shōnen Jump, Kishimoto stated that his childhood was like that of Naruto's years while he was enrolled in the Academy). In the Japanese versions of Naruto, Naruto often ends his sentences with the addendum "-ttebayo" (which gives a similar effect to ending a sentence with "you know?"). Kishimoto wanted to give Naruto a childlike catchphrase, and "dattebayo" came to mind. It complemented Naruto's character, and served as a verbal tic that showed him to be something of a brat. Throughout the beginning of the English anime, the dub replaced "dattebayo" and "-ttebayo" with the phrase "believe it!" to mirror the effect, as well as to match the character's lip movements. Other Media Cultural References Naruto has also influenced several other works of fiction. * In The Chamber of Frozen Blades of Adventure Time, Jake and Fin use hand signs to create ninja techniques such as one which resembles the function of Naruto's Shadow Clone Jutsu. * To celebrate the finale of Naruto, the cover art of chapter 766 of One Piece references Naruto, and in the week's author comments section, Oda thanked Kishimoto for being his friend and rival. * In "Treehouse of Horror XXV" of The Simpsons, different alternate reality versions of the Simpsons appear. In one of these versions, the Simpson family are each dressed up as a different manga and anime character; Bart dresses up as Naruto. * In Assassination Classroom, Korosensei preps Terasaka for the mid-term, he wears a Konoha forehead protector to symbol that he is "weak in multiple subjects", similar to how Naruto was in the Academy. He once again wears the same forehead protector to prep Terasaka for the end-of-term finals. Merchandise Naruto has remained popular with the Naruto fan-base, placing high in popularity polls. Merchandise based on Naruto has been released, including figurines and keychains. Gallery Naruto newshot.png|Naruto in Part I Naruto_Profile.png|Naruto in Part II naruto_Epilogo.png|Naruto as the Hokage Category:Characters Category:Naruto characters